DBH: The Shooting
by WayWardWonderer
Summary: Lt. Hank Anderson and Connor's lives are endangered by a deranged deviant who pulls a gun on the two detectives. Connor is willing to risk his own life to save Hank from death, even when enduring fatal injuries himself after they're both shot. Trust and bonding ensue as the duo fight to survive.


A stand-off with a deranged deviant had started poorly and was sure to end even worse. Negotiations with the deviant, who held the remote detonator to a dirty bomb hidden somewhere in the city, started with desperate words of negotiation and finished with a spray bullets as Detroit's android crime unit; solely comprised of the detective duo formed by Connor and Hank, encountered and subsequently confronted the deviant standing at the barren docks where the freighter ship 'Jericho' had once docked.

Connor was resting on his right side on the cold ground as his L.E.D. cycled red rapidly. He was propped up on his right elbow with his legs slightly bent beneath him as his left hand pressed down against the two bleeding bullet wounds in his upper abdomen. Thirium oozed between his fingers and stained the front of his shirt and jacket as it collected in a sapphire puddle all around him.

"Lieu-Lietenant..." Connor's voice was low and strained from his mounting blood loss. "Hank! G-Get out of here... Too dangerous!"

Hank fearlessly positioned himself between the deviant shooter and Connor with his own gun aimed directly at the dangerous deviant's forehead. The seasoned detective's hands were steady and his blue eyes were focused as he stared down the dangerous and armed deviant without the slightest glimmer of hesitation in his determined stare.

"This is your _last_ warning." Hank proclaimed boldly as he now faced off against the deviant alone. "Surrender peacefully, or I _WILL_ shoot."

The deviant suspect held out the remote detonator for the bomb with one hand as he lowered his gun toward Connor's forehead with his other hand. Hank followed the deviant's line of sight and took one step forward keeping Connor, his partner and friend, safe behind him.

"You have three seconds." The steadfast senior detective issued with a snarl in his voice. "I suggest you think_ very_ carefully about your next move."

Connor's L.E.D. flickered in its red hue as he cybernetically sent out a distress call asking for back-up to the scene, and inwardly winced as the bullet holes in his torso made his entire body ache as he took in slow breaths. The bleeding was steady but not rapid, yet he had already lost a considerable amount of his vital Thirium courtesy of being shot.

The violent deviant's eyes rose to meet Hank's as a fiendish grin appeared on its face. This deviant wasn't an android who had gained sentience, freewill or emotion, this was an android who had awakened and relished in the prospect of revenge and death against all of humanity. Scars littered the deviant's face, its hands and its arms indicative of years of abuse; but to whomever it was who abused it would never be known.

"One..." Hank began his countdown to warn the deviant as he had previously noted.

Raising the remote high into the air the deviant's hand began to twitch wildly at the device in its grip.

"Two..."

In a flash the deviant's thumb went for the trigger on the remote while his other hand squeezed the trigger of its gun. Hank, moving with incredible instinctive reflexes that could only be mastered by a first responder, knelt down in front of Connor as he fired his own weapon at the same time; his aim never faltering as he moved.

The bullet from Hank's gun found its target right between the deviant's eyes in a glorious splash of blue blood, while the deviant's shot had missed its target entirely. Instead of striking Connor's skull the bullet passed through the right side Hank's neck and embedded itself into the concrete surface of the port behind him, creating a splash of red blood as the bullet pierced Hank's neck.

Falling backward the deviant had shutdown before its body even made contact with the concrete surface. The remote dropping from his hand docilely and out of range, now harmless. While Hank's right hand dropped his gun he clutched weakly at his bleeding neck and he collapsed to his knees in a quickly growing puddle of his own red blood.

"...Hank?" Connor's brown eyes went wide with shock as he watched the human bleeding heavily. His face was growing paler by the second. "Hank? Can you-"

Already drained of all his strength Hank's hand slipped away from the wound in his neck allowing it to bleed unchecked across the dock as he collapsed onto his right side without a word.

"Hank!?"

With his right arm Connor dragged himself over to where Hank was laying as a massive red puddle of blood pooling under Hank's head as the bullet wound to his carotid artery proceeded to bleed profusely. A trail of blue blood smeared on the cold, hard ground beneath Connor's body as he now used both arms to drag himself to his fallen partner, the bullet wounds in his own abdomen leaking Thirium at an alarming rate as the deviant android focused only on getting to Hank's side.

The bullets that had embedded deep inside Connor's torso were affecting his internal biocomponents causing massive bleeding that forced his system into a type of low-power mode, and subsequently left the deviant android practically unable to move, or even feel, his legs. Finding some unspoken strength deep down inside of himself Connor pushed his legs into moving himself forward and over to Hank. He pushed himself into moving despite the pain and Thirium loss in an unexplainable need to save his partner.

"H-Hank...?" Connor wheezed, blue blood dripping from his bottome lip down his chin as his internal bleeding continued. His blue tinted, bloodied hand desperately reached out and rolled Hank's limp body from his side and onto his back in a single motion. Connor moved his right hand to the wound and pressed down against the senior detective's bleeding neck as he held tight pressure against the hemorrhaging artery. "Hank... I'm h-here..."

Hank's eyes were opened but unfocused as he stared into the nothingness of the night sky above him. His face was deathly pale and his lips were a pale shade of blue as he took in weak, shallow breaths. The senior detective had already lost a considerable amount of blood and was slipping into hypovolemic shock as a result.

"Hank?!" Connor all but shouted as his voice quaked unmistakably with fear.

Pushing himself up with his other left arm Connor weakly leaned over his downed partner to scan his vitals, but Connor himself had already lost too much of his own blood to perform the basic function. Pressing his ear down against Hank's chest instead Connor listened the rapid but feeble beating of Hank's heart and the shallow breaths that were barely strong enough to make his chest shudder. Connor felt his own heart tighten in his chest as he listened to the struggling heart of gold beating weakly in the already cold, almost motionless chest.

"Hank?" Connor lifted his head up and looked down at Hank, ignoring the warnings that appeared in his visual sensors about his own vital signs. "Please... Talk to me."

Hank's lips moved slightly as he reflexively swallowed, but there was no sound. It seemed Hank's voice was as weak as the rest of his body.

"H-Help is coming." Connor stammered as he sent out a second distress call cybernetically to report the urgency of the situation. With his already red L.E.D. cycling faster from the physical exertion and pain of his damaged biocomponents, the deviant android was becoming increasingly aware of a new type of pain that was presenting itself with an indescribable agony in the center of his chest; inside his heart. "P-Please, don't leave me alone."

Slowly Hank's glassy eyes blinked as his lips began to move again and he whispered something over, and over again to an unseen person that was seemingly looking down at him. With his entire body trembling from weakness Connor lowered his head to try and listen to the word that Hank was repeating. But it wasn't a word, it was a name.

"...Cole." Hank's chest shuddered as he fought to breathe. "Cole."

Upon hearing the name the strange pain in Connor's heart sharpened suddenly.

"No, Hank!" Connor's hand had pressed as tightly against Hank's neck as possible, but the wounded detective was still bleeding heavily. For the first time since he gained his deviancy tears, actual tears, formed in Connor's eyes as he watched the life draining from Hank's bleeding body. "It's me, Connor."

"...Son."

"H-Hank..." Connor unexpectedly sobbed with a choking gasp as an emotionally provoked tear ran down his face and dropped onto Hank's chest. "D-" He sobbed again pathetically as he watched Hank's eyes close heavily. Hank's chest barely rose or fell as his breathing dwindled and life steadily left his body at an alarming rate. "D-Dad?!"

Feeling utterly useless; broken, Connor bowed his head and rested his forehead against Hank's blood soaked chest as he wept for the first time in his life as he let his newly discovered deviant heart feel the emotions that he had only recently become aware of.

"...Please... I need you. You're my friend! My... fa... father..."

Tears continued to fall from his soulful brown eyes as the sound of approaching sirens wailed somberly in the distance, and bright red and blue flashing lights lit up the darkness of the port.

"Don't go!"

* * *

A rhythmic, slow beeping sound gently roused Hank from what felt like the deepest sleep of his life. The sound was familiar but strange as his blue eyes cracked open to reveal the bright, pure whiteness of the unknown room that had surrounded him. Closing his pained, still tired eyes against the harsh light Hank used his other senses to try to figure out where he was, but everything around him was unfamiliar. It was all different and new.

The unfamiliar surroundings even smelled strange, like an acrid sickening mixture of chemicals and flowers. Softness surrounded Hank, at least he believed it was soft, as a comforting pressure in his back supported him under a thick blanket over top his body. His entire body felt numb and heavy, like he was wandering aimlessly in conscious dream or a deep pond full of cement.

Warmth radiated from his neck and strange covering all around his throat and neck drew Hank's hand weakly upward to investigate the unusual sensation. As his arm slightly moved he became aware of a light pressure around his left bicep and of a plastic sensor attached his left index fingertip.

Hank's mind was racing as a strange lingering word echoed in his head. It was something he used to hear all the time, but then suddenly stopped. Something important. It was something he had faintly heard the night before as he laid dying in a pool of his own blood. Something that Co-

"Hank?"

He knew that voice. Who was it? Not Connor. Connor sounded much younger than this voice. It was an older, more gruff voice that Hank had known for many years, but had long since stopped listening to you as his own stubbornness and anger pushed people away.

"Hank, can you hear me?"

Captain Fowler. It was Jeffrey.

But why was he here? Where was 'here' anyway?

Forcing his eyes to open again Hank's vision steadily cleared and he found himself staring up at the face of his superior officer. The look on Captain Fowler's face was one of pure terror, his usual confident gaze replaced with a stare of panic and the calm expression he had mastered during his time as police officer was nothing more than an unsteady grimace. It was nothing more than a mask of his true self.

"...Jeffrey?" Hank flinched at the sound of his own hoarse, pathetic sounding voice as it escaped his bandaged throat. Swallowing once to try to ease a lingering discomfort Hank realized that a nasal cannula was resting across his face to give him clean oxygen to breathe, and was now a distracting nuisance to his returning senses. "What the fuck...?"

Hank looked around and finally realized that he was in a hospital room. The chemical smell was the astringent used to keep the place sterilized and the flower smell came from numerous bouquets that lined the furniture and walls of his room. Dozens of 'Get Well' cards were attached to the flowers as well wishers and concerned colleagues from the precinct had sent in the flowers to show that despite the gruff detective's best efforts they still cared about him.

A large curtain was set up to separate his bed from the second bed neighboring his own as he rested in the quiet, though uncomfortably bright, recovery room.

"Thank God." Captain Fowler's hand rested on Hank's right arm as the wounded detective regained consciousness. Hank had to look down at his arm to confirm that Captain Fowler was holding onto him and it was then he saw the port for the I.V. line running into the bend of the same arm. "You're going to be okay. The bullet passed through cleanly, it didn't damage any nerves or your spine. You just lost some blood, that's all."

"How..." Hank was thoroughly confused by everything, his memory was but a foggy blur and emotionally frustrating. "Just tell me what the hell happened. How the fuck did I get here? How long was I out?"

"You don't remember confronting the deviant last night?"

"What deviant? What happened? Jeffrey," Hank's voice regained strength as his senses fully returned. With the clarity of his mind came an unspoken concern in his still beating heart. "where's Connor?"

"Shit. Hank," Captain Fowler pulled up a chair beside Hank's bed and replaced his hand atop Hank's arm to keep his old friend as calm as possible. "he saved your life..."

* * *

Two police squad cars converged on the scene at a rapid pace with their sirens blaring and lights flashing brightly. One car was being driven by Chris with Captain Fowler as his passenger, the second car was being driven by Gavin with his usual partner, Tina, beside him. Both cars came to an abrupt stop when their headlights illuminated the three bodies laying motionless on the dock in a steadily growing puddle of red and blue blood.

"Holy shit!" Captain Fowler shouted as he stepped out of the car and drew his gun on instinct.

Taking aim at the deviant on the ground Captain Fowler backed his way toward his two downed officers while Chris trained his own gun on the deviant to ensure it wasn't playing dead. Gavin took the liberty of calling in the scene to ask for additional back-up, while also ordering Tina to take charge and contain the scene.

Kneeling beside Hank, kneeling down in the crimson puddle all around the dying Lieutenant's head, Captain Fowler took in the macabre sight of seeing his oldest friend laying seemingly already dead right before his eyes and was stunned silent. Connor's head was still resting against Hank's chest and he was laying just as still. The blue puddle of Thirium around him mixed in with Hank's red blood to create sickly purple hue between the two bodies as Connor refused to let up on the pressure to the bullet wound in Hank's neck.

"Hank?" Captain Fowler put his hand down on Hank's shoulder and felt how frighteningly cold his body had already become. "Jesus... Hank."

Slowly Connor lifted his head to look up at his Captain, tears were still running down his face. "He's... alive. He's still alive, Captain."

"Shit! Connor!" Captain Fowler was certain that both men were dead, and seeing Connor moving nearly gave him a heart attack. "What the hell happened?!"

Connor turned his gaze to the downed deviant where Chris, Gavin and Tina all had their guns trained. "...Had a bomb... Shot us... Hank took him... down."

"A bomb?!" Captain Fowler stood up abruptly and waved Gavin over to where he was standing. "That deviant had a bomb, find it and disarm it."

Gavin kept his eyes focused on his Captain and refused to look down at either Hank or Connor at his feet. "There's a remote detonator by its hand, we'll use it to track down the bomb and dispose of it."

"Go!" Captain Fowler urged as he slipped off his coat and resumed kneeling beside Hank. "Take Chris with you!"

Captain Fowler then waded up his coat into a ball and gently tucked it beneath Hank's head as he watched the pale, lifeless face of his friend for any sign of life. Additional sirens filled the air as the ambulance raced to the scene of the shooting to mercifully take Hank to the hospital. "Connor, how long have you been holding pressure?"

"F-Four minutes... twelve seconds." Connor's systems were trying to shift into low-power mode which would take away his ability speak verbally. Without any other androids to communicate with cybernetically he had no choice but to override the procedure in order to communicate. "Pulse is... weak and thready."

"Fuck. By all account he should be dead already." The experienced Captain lamented with notable surprise to his tone. "Stubborn until the bitter end."

"He's... cold."

"I know, but I can't do anything without you being moved." Captain Fowler didn't like how much blood either of his officers had lost, and he didn't dare to try anything that might make matters worse. "Just keep doing what you're doing, okay? You're doing exactly what he needs right now, so don't let go."

Connor nodded once, his head bowing down and staying down in the process as he rested tiredly against Hank's cold nearly motionless chest.

"Hold on." As an act of comfort Captain Fowler put one hand on the back of Connor's neck and the other down on Hank's shoulder. "That's an order, and it's one _neither_ of you can defy!"

The ambulance finally arrived at the scene of the horrific shooting and Captain Fowler stepped back to give the responding paramedics plenty of room to work.

The two paramedics rushed swiftly, yet professionally to the two fallen, bleeding detectives on the dock without the slightest hesitation in their gait. The first paramedic knelt beside Hank and picked up his wrist to check for a pulse, but the massive blood loss made his pulse undetectable. Pressing her fingers to the opposite side the bullet wound in Hank's neck she at last found a thready carotid pulse and proceeded to check his other vital signs.

"What happened?" The young woman with dark hair, dark eyes and an almost motherly disposition asked Connor as she placed the stethoscope's earbuds in her ears to listen to Hank's cold chest.

"...Sh-Shot." Connor stammered pathetically as he kept his hand in place against Hank's bloodied neck. "Please... s-save him."

"I'll do everything I can." She promised as she put the bell of the stethoscope under Hank's shirt and against his cold skin to listen to his struggling heart and weak lungs as he struggled to breathe. "Thready pulse. Tachycardia. Minor cyanosis."

The second paramedic an even younger man with red hair and blue eyes tried to pull Connor aside to examine him but the deviant android wouldn't budge, and refused to let the young medic tend to his own injuries.

"Take care of... H-Hank." Connor pushed the numerous red warnings from his vision as he focused on keeping the pressure on Hank's neck. "I'm f-fine."

It didn't take long for the paramedic to notice the blue blood staining Connor's lips, his chest and his hands. The red L.E.D. cycling rapidly in Connor's temple as he fought to keep himself calm while the paramedics took care of Hank wasn't making Connor's comment anymore convincing as he tried to deny his own wounds.

"Sir, you need a technician. You've lost a critical amount of Thirium."

"I can w-wait." Connor was losing strength but didn't dare admit it as he looked up with tears still in his eyes. "He c-can't."

Captain Fowler wanted to say something but knew that even if he tried to get Connor to let someone take a look at him the deviant android would simply refuse and weaken himself further in the process of arguing.

The female paramedic agreed with Connor about Hank being unable to wait as she prepared to start an I.V. in an attempt to boost Hank's blood volume and ease the strain on his heart. "He's in hypovolemic shock. We need to move, now."

"What about him?" The male paramedic asked regarding Connor as he wheeled the gurney from the back of the ambulance toward Hank. "We can't treat him, we don't know how. He needs a technician not a medic. I don't think he can even move right now."

Connor's systems were beginning to power down as his non-vital functions were disable automatically. Overriding the basic emergency protocols to keep himself conscious, to keep his hand from falling from Hank's neck, Connor forced his legs to move once again. Forcing himself up from the ground and into a kneeling position the deviant android defied his own programming and nodded at the female paramedic.

Thirium continued to leak from his abdomen, but there was already such a deep massive stain on his shirt that no one noticed that the deviant android was still bleeding heavily and had already lost a fourth of his overall Thirium volume.

"I can w-walk. I can't l-let go, or he'll b-bleed." Connor's voice began to reverberate with an electronic echo as he ignored his own system's warnings and proceeded to put all his concern on saving Hank. "Help him. Th-Then I will seek t-technical assistance."

"Mike, help him walk." The female paramedic urged as she and her partner, who Connor now knew as 'Mike', worked together to lift Hank's body up from the blood saturated ground and onto the gurney. "If the pressure lets up I don't think we can bring this guy back."

"_Hank_." Connor reiterated Hank's name firmly as he accompanied the paramedics to the back of the awaiting ambulance. "...His name is Hank Anderson."

"Right," she acknowledged timidly to keep the deviant android as calm as possible. "you keep the pressure on Hank's neck." She addressed Connor kindly as she nodded to Mike. "We'll take care of Hank and get him to the hospital as quickly as possible. We can't do much more for him out here in the field aside from getting him stable and keeping him stable."

Captain Fowler stepped up to assist in with the aid of his two detectives the only way he could. Putting his hand against the middle of Connor's back and the other against Connor's chest Captain Fowler helped support the physically exhausted deviant android as he moved alongside the gurney. Connor's red blood soaked hand was still clutched tightly around Hank's damaged carotid artery as they moved.

"Easy, there's a step up." Captain Fowler warned as he guided Connor into the back of the ambulance while the two paramedics lifted the gurney. "I'll meet you two at the hospital, alright? Everything will be fine."

Reluctantly Captain Fowler stepped back as the doors of the ambulance slammed shut with two of his wounded officers inside. Smacking the back of the ambulance twice he watched as the lights resumed flashing and the siren sounded off as the emergency vehicle sped away from the crime scene. The massive white and red colored body of the ambulance would normally appear like a beacon of hope in the darkness, but on that night it looked more like a setting sun in the horizon.

"Tina." Captain Fowler returned his attention to the lone officer keeping vigil over the dead deviant to ensure it stayed dead. "Call in another patrol, tell them to seal off the area and inform them I'll be at the hospital. You can't be out here alone."

"Yes, sir."

"As soon as the bomb is taken care of report back to the precinct." The commanding officer ordered as he hurried over to his own car to take his leave of the dock. "This is going to be one massive mess to clean up."

The drive to the hospital, even with lights and sirens giving him a pass to drive as fast as the ambulance, still seemed to take forever as Captain Fowler tried to remain as professional as he could. He's had to deal with wounded officers before, but very few times had the wounded officer in question been a friend he'd known for years. What made the matter worse was the way Connor was reacting to the sight of Hank bleeding out; it made him think of the night that Hank had held Cole's body in his own trembling arms when the small innocent child succumbed to his wounds after the car accident, and died in the hospital.

"You better pull through, Hank. I don't think your partner can work without you."

The car followed after the ambulance as it pulled into the emergency parking of the hospital, and backed up to the emergency doors where a trauma team was awaiting Hank's arrival. As soon as the ambulance doors opened Captain Fowler jumped out of his car and followed the gurney inside, his hands immediately on Connor's back and chest once more to aid the struggling deviant android as he continued to hold the pressure on Hank's neck.

Two I.V. bags had been used to stabilize Hank, one of refrigerated blood and the other of saline. He also had an oxygen mask secured around his nose and mouth to help him breathe. Despite the medical aid Hank still looked only seconds away from death.

Two doctors and four nurses swarmed the gurney as the paramedics, along with Connor, wheeled the gurney into the emergency trauma bay for assessment and treatment. Captain Fowler was stopped at the door by a nurse and that's where he stood as he watched through the windows as the doctors fought to save Hank's life.

Inside the trauma bay a doctor shone a penlight in Hank's eyes to check his pupils while the second doctor applied a vascular clamp the damaged artery to stem off the residual blood flow to keep Hank from effectively bleeding to death. As the emergency team prepared for surgical intervention to repair the damage to the artery Connor's hand was no longer crucial to keeping Hank alive.

"You can let go now." A nurse gently tried to coax Connor into releasing his grip but the deviant android refused to move. "Sir, we've got the bleeding under control, you can let him go. It's okay."

Captain Fowler watched as the nurse spoke to the unresponsive deviant android and decided it was time to intervene on her behalf. "Connor?" The nurse allowed the commanding officer to enter the room and speak to the near catatonic deviant android, while she carefully pried his hand free from Hank's neck so they could resume treatment. "It's okay, you did good. Hank's safe now. Let him go. Let the doctors take care of him."

With his hand trembling and drenched in Hank's sticky, red blood Connor relaxed his grip and let his arm fall limply to his side. The deviant android was visibly shaking from fear as well as Thirium loss, and needed help moving. As his programs continued to slowly power down one by one Connor's artificial skin began to pale from a lack of consistent energy keeping the external layer in place; the white plastimetal frame beneath steadily becoming more visible as his skin thinned out.

"Come on." Captain Fowler put his hands on Connor's trembling shoulders to guide the shaken deviant android out of the trauma bay and into the corridor. "Let them work. You need to be checked on, too. Let's go."

Silently and slowly Connor let Captain Fowler escort him out of the trauma bay and into the large corridor of the hospital that branched off from the waiting room into dozens of other trauma bays.

Connor's Thirium levels were critically low and shutdown was imminent, but the deviant android didn't utter a single complaint.

"Connor, look at me." Captain Fowler urged patiently as he kept one hand on Connor's shoulder to hold him steady and used his other hand to peel back the fabric of Connor's gray jacket to look at the bullet wounds in his abdomen. "Hank will pull through. Now it's your turn to-"

Without warning Connor's legs suddenly gave way and he collapsed in an unconscious heap within a matter of seconds into Captain Fowler's arms. If the commanding officer hadn't already been holding onto him Connor would've cracked his skull on the floor as he would've fallen backward in a cold dead faint.

"I gotcha'!" Captain Fowler soothed as he guided Connor down to the floor very slowly without jostling him in the process. Kneeling down on the floor Captain Fowler turned the deviant android over so his back was resting up against Captain Fowler's knees and his bleeding abdomen was visible. "Hey! I need some help over here! Officer down!"

Another doctor had heard the panic in Captain Fowler's voice and had witnessed Connor collapse as she stood by the nurse's station. Rushing over and sliding on her knees to examine her new patient her brow quickly furrowed in confusion upon seeing the massive stain of blue colored blood all over Connor's torso, rather than the human red she was accustomed to treating.

"Is he-"

"_Yes_, he's an android." Captain Fowler confirmed bitterly and impatiently. "But he's also an officer of the law. He's been shot."

"I can't... I'm not a technician."

"But you ARE sworn to 'first do no harm'! Please, just... try to help him! He saved his partner's life tonight, just try to save his."

Taking in Connor's pitiful state and looking at the closed doors of the trauma bay where Hank was being tended to gave the doctor the drive to make at least one honest attempt to help Connor. "Alright, I'll see what I can do."

The doctor did the only thing she could think to do and proceeded to examine Connor as if he were in fact human. Taking the stethoscope draped around her neck she put the earbuds in place before she pressed the bell to Connor's chest for a listen. It wasn't as effective of an instrument as an audioscope for android anatomy, but it would have to do.

"I'm not sure what I should be listening for, but it sounds like his, uh, Thirium pump is... struggling." Moving the bell from Connor's heart over to where his ventilation biocomponents were located she continued to listen intently. "And I can hear crackling, like fluid in the lungs." The doctor looked as frightened as Captain Fowler felt. "Hey, Judy!" She yelled to a nearby nurse to come and assist her. "Get a gurney and find an empty room. We have a special case over here."

Connor's head lolled to the side as his red L.E.D., cycling at a dangerously low speed, began to fade in color entirely.

"Shit." The doctor lifted Connor's eyelids and saw that his pupils were no longer responsive or clear despite having enhanced reflexes to bright lights. "I think he's gone into some kind of shock."

Captain Fowler watched silently as two bewildered human orderlies picked up Connor from the floor and placed him on the nearby gurney that had been brought over to assist in treating him.

"I'll try what I can to save him." The doctor gave Captain Fowler a doubtful glance as she began running alongside the gurney as it was wheeled out of sight into an unseen room in the distance. "But I can't make any promises."

"Just, TRY." Captain Fowler called as he watched Connor getting rolled away down the hallway to a secondary treatment room just around the corner. "That's all I ask. Just fucking try..."

* * *

Absolutely shaken Hank stared at Captain Fowler with a stunned look on his face as he fought to restrain the tears that had welled up in his eyes after being told what had happened. The racing heart rate on his cardiac monitor betrayed any form of calmness he managed to feign as he looked at his Captain, at his friend, as if he had just been told the world as he knew had come to violent, bloody end.

"Connor... Connor's _dead_?!"

Captain Fowler gave Hank a dubious glance before he stood up from his chair, walked over to the other side of the bed and pulled back the curtain that had separated Hank's bed from the second patient who was silently sharing his room.

Turning his head quickly Hank winced at the burning pain in his neck and his heart finally began to slow.

"Connor?!" Hank almost shouted the name as he stared at the deviant android laying unconscious next to him.

Connor was motionless save for his L.E.D. cycling a pale yellow light in his right temple. His shirt and jacket had been removed and his repaired torso was wrapped entirely in bandages. A nasal-gastric tube flowing with a blue liquid had been inserted through his nose down into his stomach to replenish the Thirium he lost after being shot, and he too was hooked up to a cardiac monitor; but the monitor had been slightly modified to accommodate the android's physiology..

"But... I don't understand." Returning his attention to Captain Fowler the healing detective gave his friend an incredulous look. "This is a human hospital, why is he here and not at an android facility?"

"When the doctor who tried to help Connor heard about what happened from the paramedics, heard about how he was ready to give his life to save you, she decided to go ahead and operate on him."

"How... did she operate on him?" Hank's eyes returned to his partner quickly. The sight of Connor's chest weakly rising and falling gave the exhausted detective a much needed sense of relief to see that the deviant android was still functioning. "She's a human doctor, not a technician. Right?

"She called a nearby android facility and asked for assistance. One technician walked her through the basics through a videochat on her laptop while another technician drove to the hospital with emergency supplies to help during the actual procedure." Captain Fowler stepped back over to Hank's bedside as he explained things further. "You were both on the operating table for almost two hours, but you're both still here and that's all that matters."

Hank leaned back against his pillow and sighed as he closed his eyes tightly to keep himself from crying in front of his commanding officer. The refusal to emote wasn't out of misguided pride, it was out of a need to feel as though he was still in control over something while laying vulnerable in a hospital bed.

"You know," Captain Fowler continued in a modest tone. "the hospital has decided to hold a meeting to decide whether or not to open a special android care unit for emergency situations."

"They... what? Why?"

"Because of your friendship with Connor. There's easily as many androids on staff here as there are humans, so it only makes sense to keep a stock of supplies and trained personnel on staff in the event an android becomes injured while working. Since we do the same at the precinct and throughout the fire stations all around the city the hospital wants to take extra steps to ensure that any all emergencies can be handled by qualified personnel."

"Yeah... great." Hank was less interested in hospital policies, even if they were changing for the better, and more concerned with his partner. "That's fantastic."

"Hank." This time Captain Fowler addressed the pained detective not as his superior, but as his friend. It was a gesture he hadn't shown toward Hank for years, not since Cole had died on that horrible night. "Get some rest and try not to worry about Connor. He's going to be okay."

"Yeah... Thanks Jeffrey."

"Sure. I'm going to head back to the station and sort through this mess. Do you need anything?"

"Yeah, could you have someone check on my dog? It'd be best to send Chris is he's available, or Tina. Sumo hates Gavin."

"Don't we all?"

Hank laughed a little at the comment as he returned his attention to Connor. He wasn't quite sure what to say, if anything at all. How do you thank someone who was so willing to lay down their own life to save yours? There weren't enough words in any language, let alone Hank's mind, to properly convey his appreciation for Connor's selflessness and courage.

Partner. Friend. Family.

It didn't matter.

To have someone in your life willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for another person was beyond comprehension.

And to have some willing to lay down for the life of a person who had long since given up on himself was extraordinary; if not eye-opening.

"Thanks, kid. I mean that."

Hours passed by with Hank drifting in and out of sleep as his doctor and several nurses checked in on him, while technicians stopped by every so often to check on Connor. The tube supplying Connor's replenished Thirium had been removed, as were the bandages around his torso as the repairs to his biocomponents had remained stable. There wasn't even a scar across his abdomen thanks to the wonders of his self-healing program and artificial skin.

Bored with the quiet, bored with the hospital, bored with the doctors Hank turned on the television only see the news talking frantically about the destroyed deviant who had threatened the city with the bomb the previous night, and talking about the potential hospital policy changes. The media didn't actually care about the changes for android kind, they just wanted ratings and from years of experience Hank knew they were going to milk the story for all of its worth until the bitter end.

Turning off the television in frustration Hank sighed and ran his hand over his tired face as he let out an exhausted groan. The pain in his neck wasn't excruciating, but it was becoming a distraction.

"Bullshit reporters. Anything for a rating."

"...Lieu...tenant?"

At the sound of his rank Hank immediately turned his head to see that Connor's eyes had finally opened and the deviant android was looking at him with his own glassy irises. "Connor."

"...Are you okay?"

"I'm fine son, thanks to you. You... You saved my life, kid. Thanks."

Connor smiled weakly and blinked very slowly as he turned his head so that he was laying completely straight again, his head back up against the pillow underneath him. "You saved _me_. You put yourself between the deviant and myself after I had been injured. You..." Connor's strength quickly returned and with it came an unexpected passion to his voice. "You took a bullet for me, Hank! Why?"

"Because you're... you're my friend. You're important to me. I care about you."

Turning his head back to look at Hank a fresh welling of tears appeared in his soulful brown eyes. "You're important to me too, Hank. You're the only real friend I've ever had. You don't treat me like a machine, you make me feel like I'm really a person; like I'm really alive. You make me feel like I actually matter."

"Of course you _matter_. Don't let anyone try to tell you anything different." Hank looked away from the deviant android and down at his still pale hands resting over his abdomen. He flexed his fingers a few times, checking to see how much numbness lingered in his extremities before he found the courage to ask the one question he had been too afraid to ask. "Connor, when I was shot and bleeding out I vaguely remember hearing a voice talk to me. I know it sounds crazy but at first I thought it was... Well, I thought it was Cole."

Arching his brow slightly Connor gauged Hank's reaction to the moment with a silent observation.

"I thought I heard him call out to me, like he was waiting for me to find him on the other side." Taking a moment to breathe Hank continued in a low voice as he spoke of what he remembered. "He called me 'dad'. It was nice to hear that again..."

Connor swallowed the emotion he had only recently begun to truly acknowledge and remained silent.

"But it wasn't him, was it?" Hank's eyes were kind, not angry or stern as he turned to look over at Connor. "It was _you_."

"I... I don't know why I said it." Connor felt a twinge of embarrassment and he wasn't sure where it was coming from, or why he was willing to admit it. "It just... came out."

"It's okay Connor, I'm not upset." The senior detective laughed a little as an interesting theory popped into his head. "Maybe it's because I called you 'son' a few times."

"Yes." Connor turned his gaze to look out the window of the hospital to the bright blue sky overhead as he willingly accepted Hank's theory as the truth. It wasn't entirely accurate, but he didn't want to argue or challenge it in the slightest. "...That must be it."

* * *

Two days passed by before Hank and Connor were discharged from the hospital and allowed to return home for the remainder of their recovery. The two detectives were being hailed as heroes as they had managed to stop the deviant from activating the bomb, but neither of them felt as though they deserved any special praise. They just wanted to go back home and rest without people constantly intruding to ask them the same questions over and over again. They just wanted to get back to their old lives before the night of the shooting.

But there was no going back.

The two now realized how important they were to one another.

As soon as the duo entered the house the two detectives were greeted by a very happy, very energetic Sumo who just wanted attention from his long absent masters.

"Good boy, Sumo. Down." Hank pet the dog's head with one hand and pressed his other hand against the sore spot on his neck as he sat down on the couch heavily to rest. "Give us a minute to relax, will ya'?"

Connor proceeded to rub Sumo's ears as he knelt down on the floor for a few seconds to acknowledge the fluffy dog. Briefly glancing up at Hank sitting on the couch Connor felt compelled to remind him of the strict personal care he wouldn't need to endure for the next two weeks as he recovered. "Remember what the doctor said, take your medication every eight hours and to do so with a meal."

"Yeah, sure." Hank took the bottle of antibiotics from his coat pocket and left it on the coffee table in plain sight. "Too bad you didn't get any fun little android exclusive pain killers or something, huh Connor?"

Rather than reminding Hank that he had already healed and would not require any additional treatment Connor proceeded to go about his usual routine of making reports to the precinct cybernetically, and noting Hank's physical distress as he recovered from the emergency surgery. Approaching the couch he sat down and closed his eyes hoping that by going through his usual tasks he'd be able to preoccupy his thoughts and keep the emotions he had finally allowed himself to feel at bay.

"Connor? You okay?" Hank noticed that the deviant android was behaving rather oddly; even for Connor. "You're only quiet when something's on your mind."

"It's... It's nothing. Don't worry about it."

"Connor, don't do that." Without raising his voice Hank practically scolded Connor as he tried to keep the deviant android from shutting him out. "Talk to me if you need to talk. What's on your mind, son?"

That word again: 'Son'. Why did it suddenly perplex Connor so much?

"I just..." He hesitated for only a moment before finally answering as he knew he wouldn't be able to keep the emotions inside of him from welling up any longer. "I can't explain my reaction the night you were shot." Connor looked to Hank with loss and confusion in his soulful brown eyes, his L.E.D. now yellow and cycling slowly as he thought. "When I saw you bleeding to death my first instinct was to do everything to keep you alive, but..."

As the deviant android trailed off Hank could see that there was something absolutely perplexing in Connor's mind that he just couldn't figure out. "But... what? What is it?"

"This instinct, it didn't come from a place of programming, professionalism or even companionship. It feels like it came from..." Connor trailed off a second time as he struggled to find the way to explain his unusual feeling without sounding crazy.

"Connor. From where?"

"I can only describe it as... from the heart." The deviant android looked completely confused as he tried to think logically. "My immediate thought following you being injured wasn't something I was expecting."

"Which was... what?" Hank was more curious than impatient at this point. He'd never seen or heard Connor acting so strangely before. "What did you think?"

"I thought about how... lonely I'd be if you died. I'd have no one, and be by myself. Entirely alone. I was afraid I'd be-" Connor's eyes went wide and his L.E.D. flashed to red as he realized what the term was he was looking for, but dared to not say it.

"Connor? What were you afraid of?"

"I was afraid of being..." He turned to Hank and gave him the most perplexed look of his short life. "_orphaned_."

As soon as Hank heard the confession his posture visibly straightened with utter surprise. "I didn't know an android could even understand the concept of being orphaned."

"Then it must be wrong." Connor shook his head as if he were waiting for an excuse to invalidate his own reasoning. "It's impossible for an android to have a family, let alone-"

Hank's arm suddenly wrapped around Connor's neck and he pulled the deviant android up against his shoulder briefly silencing him. "Connor, you _do_ have a family. You have _me_. _I'm_ your family."

A sudden wave of serenity washed over Connor as the depth of Hank's words overwhelmed him. Reaching one hand up to Hank's arm Connor grabbed hold of the strong limb as if he need to make sure it was really there, and a tear rolled down his face for the second time as he allow his heart to feel for him just as it did the night of the shooting. Using his other hand Connor wiped it away and hoped that Hank didn't see it, or at least wouldn't acknowledge it.

"Thank you for understanding me." Connor replied in a placated whisper. "And for taking care of me."

"You're welcome. Everything will be okay, Connor." Hank discreetly wiped away an emotional tear of his own as his tightened his arm around Connor and let the memories of that horrible, bloody night slip to the back of his tired mind. "You're okay, I'm here for you. I promise, son."

_**-The End  
** _


End file.
